


Birds and Other Supernatural Phenomena

by PersephonesCat



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: AU, Adrien Is Not An Asshole, Angst, Author Is Sleep Deprived, But mostly angst and snarky comments, But they are all VERY ooc, Damian Wayne Feels, Damian Wayne is So Done, Epic, Everything is the same except they have actual characteristics, Fluff, Humor, Ihavenoselfcontrol, Kind of a fix-it when it comes to Mlb characters, Lila Rossi Redemption, Magic, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Is a Mess, Marinette Is Smart, Marinette is a badass, Multi, Murder, Mystery, Shit this has an actual plot, Slow To Update, Tags May Change, The Author Regrets Nothing, Things are... complicated, Tim Drake 4 ever, Update Schedule Is Hectic, When Did that Happen, a little dark, af, and she is sassy, but who isn't, murder investigation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-01-03 22:29:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 14,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21187025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PersephonesCat/pseuds/PersephonesCat
Summary: Falling. Falling. Falling.Things were falling apart. Marinette wondered if they ever were a whole, or if it was just her being ignorant.Then they go to Gotham, and she feels truly comfortable for once, making conversations with a villain about life and psychology, not having to be ready to jump into a fight anytime someone in the city has a negative feeling. Things aren't good, but they seem to exist, and for her, that's more than enough.Then, of course, Damian Wayne has to come and ruin it all.UNDER REWRITING





	1. The Inevitable Doom

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so I have no control over my life. Fine. 
> 
> The characters are so out of character it's funny. I've little to no idea about Batman, so I should apologize but I won't, because I just lost all my remaining brain cells and I blame Tumblr.
> 
> Speaking of Tumblr, I posted this there too, under the same name.
> 
> Big thanks for LucyyJ26 for fixing the Lucky Charm-problem, you should read her work too, its grammar is probably better than mine will ever be, and her stories are amazing.  
A little explanation: she took the Lucky Charm out of the story and instead, Ladybugs's power is the Miraculous Cure, which can re-do the destruction done during an Acuma-attack and can bring back the ones fallen by the villain's actions. She's changed other things in the Miraculous-world too, but this is the only one I'm going to use, except that in this story, it's called Lucky Cure (don't ask). For further explanation, visit her story: Miraculous: Darker Origins. The Daminette AU.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy, I guess.

Field trips should be fun.

Except if you're Marinette Dupain-Cheng, of course.

The Dupont was the best high school in Paris, so the fact that they managed to plan a school trip to freaking _Gotham_ out of all of America had to say a lot about Parisian schools. Or so Marinette thought. (Apparently, she was the only one.)

The best of all? Her classmates didn't even notice the irony of it all. Well, Adrien did, but she was way more bitter than to give him that.

"Kids, I have great news!" clapped Mrs. Bustier (happily married since last summer) cheerfully. "We've won the competition! We're going to Gotham!"

The whole class broke out into excited chattering as Marinette glanced at Adrien sitting next to her. He was the only one besides from Marinette who didn't seem very happy from the news. They locked eyes, and the girl could see the worry and exhaustion on his face.

***

_/Two months, seventeen days and nine hours earlier/_

With every day passing, the weather in Paris got colder. The Ladybug suit provided enough warmth even on the most algid nights but walking to school in the mornings or going home in the afternoons was getting more and more difficult for Marinette. She really didn't understand why out of all things a ladybug could do, the only thing she got was the urge to hibernate. She didn't have wings. No antennas. No four extra legs. Even Tikki wasn't anywhere near similar to a ladybug. Basically, other than her name and the colors, Marinette was just as far from resembling a ladybug as one could be.

But no, she had to get ill and tired every time the weather was cool. Fantastic.

"Ladybug?"

Chat's voice brought her back to reality. She was sitting on the roof of Adrien's house, at one in the morning, with the stars shining at them brightly from the sky's soft black. The stars always calmed Marinette. They reminded her that there was a whole universe out there, that she was small and didn't matter compared to the real world. These kinds of thoughts usually terrified people, but not her. If nothing really matters then the best you can do is making sure you're happy, right?

She turned towards her partner's shadowy figure standing on the other side of the roof.

"Hi," she started with a barely visible smile. "Is everything okay? You weren't there yesterday when Glassterix attacked and it's okay, but you missed school too and we were getting a little worried." Well, it wasn't entirely 'okay'. It took her over two hours to defeat the Akuma and her Lucky Cure had to bring back twenty-three people from the dead, but she wasn't mad at him. It wasn't the first time one of them couldn't show up, they learned to be patient with each other a long time ago. After all, they were best friends, especially since they knew each other's identity.

About that: yeah, it was a wild ride. It happened the month before, and it still caused her nightmares sometimes. The way Ryuko was crying as a group of civilians fell from the Eiffel tower right before her eyes (she couldn't save them) and Carapace's screams when the Champs Elysées' asphalt shattered into pieces sending flying cars all over the place was haunting her every time she closed her eyes. At some point, Rena Rouge's costume was splattered with someone else's blood and she freaked out so bad, she took a wrong step off the roof, dislocated her ankle and fell five stories before Ladybug could catch her. Marinette swore she was never going to ask for the other heroes' help again unless it was absolutely necessary. When Chat's ring started ticking in the middle of the fight and she saw the fear creeping to his face, making all his anger disappear, she grabbed his arm and took him to a relatively safe alley. For a moment, the green light made the shadows look like long, faceless opponents, but is passed just as fast as it came and Adrien was left standing there, panicking. Marinette wasn't too surprised, she's suspected it for a while and judging from Adrien's face after she transformed back to her plain old self, he did too. She succeeded in calming him down enough so his breathing was mostly even and she told him to get Plagg something to eat (that seemed to clear his mind a little), but then she had to go back to fight. Half an hour later Chat was once again helping Viperion evacuate the civilians.

She stood up and took a step towards Chat Noir, who for some reason seemed to stop far away from her.

"There's something I have to talk to you about," he said, and Marinette once again felt the smell of inevitable doom lingering around them, but she stayed calm.

"Okay," she told him carefully.

He stepped out of the shadows and now she could see he wasn't wearing his costume. She felt a little panic in her throat, but he seemed fine, just… hesitant, maybe.

"I was thinking about… everything, really, and the thing is, I want to go to college. I would like to go to Cambridge, or maybe Yale, I haven't actually decided yet, but the point is, that wherever I go, it won't be in Paris. It won't be in France."

Marinette's heart sunk and for the first time in months, her eyes started stinging a little. She hated to cry, but she didn't want him to leave. All year, she kept telling herself that they were just in eleventh grade, that college was far, but she knew it wasn't entirely true. Almost everyone in her class has already decided where they were going to go. The United Kingdom? America? No, these places were too far, too big, too scary to think about. Why would he want to go there?

"I know it sounds a bit overconfident, but I think I can make it. However, I've to learn. A lot. And I've to make sure I do enough work outside of school that I can put in my applications and I have to do a lot of things, I still don't exactly know everything about it but the point is…" he stopped speaking and took a few steps towards her, so now the distance between them was normal but he was still avoiding her gaze.

"The point is," he continued cautiously, "-that I thought long and hard about it, and I can't be Chat Noir anymore." He looked her in the eyes for a moment, but seeing her expression, he turned his gaze to the ground.

For a second that seemed like a lifetime, Marinette was just staring at him. She thought it was a joke, or a dream, or a fucked-up prank because it couldn't have been real. It wasn't possible, right?

Then she slowly opened her mouth to protest, to do anything, but Adrien was quicker.

"And it isn't just that. I mean, the college." He shook his head and sighed, annoyed at himself. In different circumstances, it would've been satisfying to see _him_ not finding the right words for once. "It isn't just about college. Marinette, I would like to live an actual life. It's selfish, I know, but if I don't quit now, I'm never going to be able to. I won't be able to have a family, a job I like, I'm never going to have a dog because there's always going to be something that keeps me from being home. I love being Chat Noir, but during the past two years, I learned, that the main reason that I like it is that it helps people. But it's not the life I want to live in. I'm going to find another way to help, one that lets me be happy."

It was a promise, and they both knew it. _' I'm going to be a good person. I'm going to help. I'm going to be happy. I promise.'_

Marinette saw the world shatter all around them as he spoke. Her world. She knew that at the same time, he saw it grow and evolve, and the irony didn't go over her head.

"I'm not going to leave you alone," he told her, looking into her eyes. "In fact, I'm happy to help you or Ladybug anytime you want, but only as Adrien." He grabbed her hand softly and dropped the Black Cat ring into her palm. "I'm sorry."

And with that, he was gone, leaving Marinette standing on his roof at one in the morning under the black blanket of the night. She wiped the tears that never fell out of her eyes and welcomed the numbness in her soul. She looked up to the sky one last time before swinging around the city until dawn. The stars no longer seemed so bright.

Later in the night, wandering back and forth in his room, Adrien wondered if Marinette picked up everything he meant, but left unsaid.

_' I'm going to be a good person. I'm going to help. I'm going to be happy._  
_ I'm here for you. I want you to be happy. I promise.'_

He decided, that probably not.


	2. This Was a Bad Idea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so the first two chapters turned out to be a little dry, but I have big hopes for the third one, so... hang on there!  
Yes, I know the first few paragraphs are flat, I tried to make them better, and I failed miserably. 
> 
> IMPORTANT:  
This is an AU, so things are a teeny bit different. The Francoise-Dupont is an eight-year grammar school (those are a thing in Europe, or at least in a few countries. The kids start middle school and go to the same school until high school graduation, so its both a middle school and a high school in one. Foreign languages are usually thaught there on a higher level, so that explains Marinette's and her class' language skills.)  
That's it so far, most changes will be written down in the story, but keep an eye on the summaries! ;) (Even though no one reads these.)

Their plane didn't crash.

That was about the only good thing Marinette could think of.

It all started when she and Adrien were forced to sit next to each other during the flight. It wasn't  _ that  _ bad, but things have been a little... tense between them lately. Even though Marinette forgave him a long time ago, she still felt a sense of betrayal every time she had to fight an akuma alone. She knew it was wrong. She had no right to prevent others from being happy. Especially not her friends, but she couldn't help it. 

So they sat next to each other, and the first half-hour was spent with Marinette awkwardly staring out of the window and playing with her braid nervously, while Adrien was pretending to read a book, - very poorly, given that he only turned the page five times in thirty minutes. Marinette was counting it. 

What a pleasing situation.

Then, of course, Lila got bored of talking about her experience with planes and started throwing around phrases like 'helping defeat the Joker', 'out-riddling the Riddler' and 'knowing who Red Robin is'. 

During the past two years, her lies have gotten smaller. Smarter. More innocent. They were no longer fourteen, they didn't believe anything she said, and she realized that. After Lila swore to ruin Marinette's life, Hawkmoth's attacks got stronger and Marinette got... well, older, probably. Wiser. ( _ Sadder. _ ) Sometimes she still called her out on her lies, and on a few blissful occasions, her classmates believed her. She wasn't the only one who got wiser, as it turned out. Adrien started to see the wrong in his ways not long after he told Marinette that Lila was harmless and stood up for her almost every time the Italian girl's lies got too toxic to ignore.

There was some kind of quiet compromise between her classmates. They liked Lila, even if she wasn't always "completely honest" - that was the understatement of the year -, and they all had this "proceed with care but do no harm" attitude towards the girl.

So Marinette was pretty surprised when sitting only two seats behind her, Lila once again started feeding them lies so blatant and stupid that they almost managed to make her laugh. It would've been a long and sarcastic laugh, but a laugh nevertheless.

She turned to Adrien who was looking back at her with an expression somewhere between angry and surprised. They stared at each other for a few seconds before they both started grinning uncontrollably.

Then Nino interrupted Lila by showing the group his newest playlist, and the moment was gone.

The awkward silence was threatening to drown them, but Marinette was familiar with drowning and decided she didn't like it.

"What are you pretending to read?" Adrien's ears turned red at the question but being himself, he tried to play it off cool.

" _ Armada  _ by Ernest Cline."

She raised a brow, clearly amused by that. "Since when are you into sci-fi?"

"Since it was the first thing I could grab from the bookshelf this morning," he told her with a shrug and closed the book moodily.

Marinette grimaced at him and took a small copy of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's  _ Sherlock Holmes  _ out of her bag. Adrien told her to check it out a long time ago, but given her lack of free time, she's only read two stories so far.

She gave it to him without a word.

"Thanks," he said brightly, and actually started reading this time.

Marinette gave him the ghost of a smile, then pulled out her sketchbook hesitantly. She hasn't designed a decent piece of clothing in ages. One would've called it a year-long artist's block, but she preferred "idiocy". It was shorter.

She fell asleep like that, with an empty sketchbook on her lap and a pencil in her hand.

***

Their hotel was near the Gotham Academy, which was near Arkham Asylum, which sucked. Seriously, Gotham? Yeah, let's put the kids next to the murderous psychopaths.

Once they arrived, it was already well past nine PM, so they were sent to their rooms to sleep. They had three rooms for the girls, two with four beds and one with two. Luckily, Marinette managed to occupy the double-room all to herself - Mylene, Chloe, Juleka, and Alix got a room together, and Alya, Rose, Lila, and Sabrina got the other-, so it was pretty easy to sneak out after she realized there was no way for her to stay still after sleeping on the plane.

Being inside past ten o'clock felt weird. She missed the patrols and the light breeze on her face while she swang around Paris, the sensation of falling freely from hundreds of meters, the calm of the environment as she made impossible leaps and jumps in a graceful rhythm.

With no better things to do, she pulled a blanket out of the closet and climbed to the roof.

That night, the sky was more blue than black, and the stars were dull from the city's polluted air. She sat there for who-knows-how-long, wrapped in a blanket, looking upwards, listening to the unfamiliar city beneath. Then she heard quiet footsteps behind her back.

Over the years, she learned the difference between the sounds of someone walking casually and someone trying to muffle their steps, just like she usually knew what kind of shoes they wore, their gender, and approximate height too. These were the steps of a thin man, probably young in leatherette boots, trying to sneak up on her and failing miserably. She let him come close and didn't bother to let him know she was aware of his presence.

"What does a young lady like you do here at this time of the day?" he asked in a charming but threatening voice, and Marinette had to suppress a smile at how badly he did it. She knew she should send him away, or go back to her room before he tries something that gets him ended up on the asphalt beneath them, but she was bored, and he seemed like a very entertaining person.

Instead, she answered just tonelessly enough for it to be challenging, but innocently enough to make him question it.

"Stargazing." 

The man - more like a boy - stopped just a step behind her back, unsure how to proceed. Then he let out a resigned sigh and sat down next to her, far enough to not be in stabbing range -  _ smart decision _ .

"No, seriously, it's past midnight and you're sitting on a roof, eighteen stories from the ground, in  _ Gotham _ ," he said, swinging his legs over the edge of the building and looking at her with genuine concern. 

Marinette finally looked at him and recognized him almost immediately. He was wearing a black hoodie and a ski mask, with jeans and dark boots.

"Oh, you're the Dark Nomad, right?" She's read about him on the plane, just like she checked out and memorized every hero and villain in Gotham. There were a few.

The Dark Nomad was one of the small, relatively harmless ones. His mother worked in the Asylum - they didn't know who she was exactly, just that she worked there -, he didn't actually do much except for exiguous vandalism, but it was enough to get him on the " _ List of Gotham's Villains (updated every week) _ " published by the city's very own newspaper, the  _ Gotham Gazette _ .

"The one and only," he saluted awkwardly.

"Then you're pretty good with psychology, right?"

He seemed a little taken back by the question.

"Yes, I mean... I guess."

Marinette turned to him with her whole body, sitting cross-legged, looking like someone who is looking forward to a great conversation. This was  _ so  _ much better than she thought.

"What do you think about the phenomenon where the people with higher-than-average IQ have lower-than-average EQ, but if someone has lower-than-average IQ, they most likely have average or lower-than-average EQ?"

Dark Nomad just stared at her for a moment but then decided to roll with it. It really was a good topic.

"Well, it's interesting because... it's not like you have a maximum of quotient points, and you've to live with what you have. It depends on a lot of things, and we still don't even  _ know _ what half of those things are."

"Exactly! It could mean you need a high IQ to be able to understand and feel emotions healthily, but it's not always necessary, plus the trope of the genius robot-person is way too overused in media. That's not how smart people think!"

"Yeah, and in some cases, the low EQ could be the consequence of loneliness and isolation from a young age because of the differences in one's and the environment's thinking," Dark Nomad said, gesticulating widely.

"And by the way, EQ is pretty hard to express with numbers. If you give a test to someone, they might know what the appropriate responses to a situation are, but they might never actually... do them in practice."

Dark Nomad nodded.

"Have you read Daniel Goleman's books about emotional intelligence? It's pretty dope."

"Not yet, but I'm planning on it."

"By the way... I'm Jeremy," said the boy, sitting closer to her and reaching out for a handshake.

"Marinette," she told him with a genuine smile, accepting his hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and coffee are my life-juice, so please, share your thoughts. I'm sorry for any possible mistakes and feel free to point them out.


	3. I Came Here to Have a Good Time...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeyyy, third chapter!! I decided to post it now, so I don't forget it. xdd  
Thank you for your positive feedback!   
And big thanks to my beta readers for putting up with my grammar. :D

The problem with making friends with a villain past midnight and getting into an hours-long debate on psychology with them? 

Well, you know the thing when you lay unconscious in your bed in order to function? It kinda gets left out.

Marinette drank two cups of coffee in the morning - she didn't even  _ like _ coffee -, and she still wanted to kill everyone she laid her eyes on and then herself. (Guess who spent their practically non-existent free time reading memes?)

It was too early to check on Luka and Kagami, plus they made her promise she would at least  _ try _ to have a good time, and Kaalki had absolutely no interest in taking her to Paris if there wasn't a clear threat. Normally, she wouldn't have thought about going on a school trip at all. For two years, she managed to "get sick" every time there was an outing on the horizon, and she took no pleasure in going to a different continent for two months, while Paris' population was completely vulnerable to a terrorist. 

However, Gotham might've had been even more dangerous than Paris, and she couldn't let her classmates go without protection either. Not to mention how the whole trip was... kind of her fault.

In her protection, last year, when Mrs. Bustier presented the class with the opportunity, she didn't think they had any chance. So when the woman said she was going to speak to her colleagues in her favor if Marinette filled out the application and convinced the class to reach the requirements, the girl didn't think twice. They shot a cool campaign-video, got recommendations from Jagged Stone, Cheng Shifu, Nadja Chamack, Penny Rolling, Gabriel Agreste, Audrey Bourgeois, the major, the principal and even the Kitty Section for good measure, then she wrote a five pages long essay about the ways they could spend the vacation and the money that came with it. Now that Marinette was thinking about it, they might've overshot the mark a little.

Thanks to Mrs. Bustier, this way she could at least maintain her grades a bit, which came handy after the late-night patrols she was still getting used to at the time.

Giving the Miraculouses to Luka and Kagami after swearing never to use them again was hard, but necessary. As Ladybug, she fed them a story about having to go to the east for a Miraculous-mission two weeks before Marinette actually left, so she could see them in action - Hawkmoth was getting sloppy; he only sent out one akuma during that time period, and it was a pretty weak one too -, and so it wasn't that easy to connect the dots, 'cause... Ladybug and your friend, who magical camouflage or not, look pretty much alike, leave and come back at the same time. You have three guesses.

She made them promise to call her if there was any damage she had to "Cure" or if an akuma was too difficult for them to handle, and she hoped that at least Kagami, being the more responsible one, would keep that promise.

Alya's voice, still hoarse from waking up, pulled her out of her thoughts.

"Mornin'." She stopped to yawn and tried to smooth her red tornado of a hair out. "Where did you get coffee?" 

Marinette pointed at the pot on the counter. Alya shuffled towards it with closed eyes, muttering "coffee" under her breath over and over again, her hip hitting every chair on the way there. She might've cursed a few times, but it came out so tangled, Marinette wasn't sure.

Then came Nino storming down the stairs, probably waking the entire city with his steps, humming Jagged Stones'  _ Jeudi soir.  _ He put a hand on Alya's back, lead her to a chair, then poured her a cup of coffee and smiled at Marinette while mixing two spoons of sugar into it. She smiled back fondly. 

She wasn't sure when she and Alya stopped being best friends. Things just... changed. Marinette started growing out her hair, wearing it in a braid instead of piggy tails. Alya's usual shirts were swapped to fandom T-shirts and crop tops. Marinette's clothes got more red and black, Alya started running another website beside Ladyblog, about her everyday life and various topics from movie-critiques to the art of journalism. Marinette ran out of pink lipstick and purchased a cherry one instead. Alya went to a festival with Nino and it was the best week of her life. Marinette's crush on Adrien disappeared, while Alya's relationship with Nino got more and more serious. 

It was slow and painful at first, but she didn't realize how much changed over a few months until one day she reached for her phone to call her friend and tell her something about a commission she got, then it hit her: they were not like that anymore.

It was comforting, on some level, that she no longer had that responsibility. Or that's what she told herself.

When the rest of her class arrived, she stood up and left the cafeteria. 

***

In the morning, they went sightseeing. Not as if Gotham had a lot of sights, they might've been the only people stupid enough to go there for  _ fun _ .

No, it was more like two hours of "don't go here", "don't go there", and " _ please _ , don't go there either" as they were shown around the city by a young lady whose posture was radiating stress  _ all the time _ . Marinette could understand why. Their last stop was the Wayne Tower, where they were told to pair up with each other and discover the shops, cafés, and restaurants around the square.

She locked eyes with Adrien and mouthed "cover for me". The boy nodded, then Marinette quickly turned around the corner and walked around the square a few times before finding a sympathetic café, only one street away from the tower (technically, it wasn't on the square, but close enough).

She took a seat and ordered her third cup of coffee that day (she was healthy like that), before pulling out her phone and researching Wayne Enterprises. She checked it out back home of course, but there was a lot more material there than she had time for

She was reading yet another biography on Bruce Wayne and pretending her tired eyes weren't constantly tearing up and stinging from the screen when she heard it.

"I can't believe it. Have you read this?" an old man asked his wife sitting at the table next to Marinette's.

"Please, Robert, you can't throw a tantrum every time someone gets killed in this city," the women answered flatly.

The man turned a few pages in his newspaper then pushed it under her wife's nose.

"Not just someone, Martha! A girl! A young girl! She was barely older than Katie!" That seemed to pique the woman's interest.

"A girl, ya' say?" she murmured, pulling out her glasses. "Who did it?"

"You'd think they know, right? I mean, they have a list of all the psychopaths rummaging the streets, it can't be  _ that hard _ to figure out, but  _ no-, _ " the wife shushed him just by raising a finger.

She took a few seconds to read the article before speaking up again.

"This says it was near Crime Alley. No girl goes near that just by accident."

"She was stabbed twelve times in broad daylight! She wasn't _ that _ near Crime Alley, look-," he turned the newspaper, searching the lines then he pointed at something, "-she was found on St. Anthony Street! That's five streets over!"

The woman hummed.

"What did ya' say, how old was she?"

"Sixteen. Katie might've seen her a few times, they went to the same school."

A waitress came and interrupted them, giving them their check. Marinette, who was pretending to drink her coffee peacefully all along now turned to them just as the man opened his wallet.

"Excuse Moi? May I ask what time it is?" She asked with a thick French accent. 

The man stopped halfway in paying the waitress and glanced at his watch, giving Marinette enough time to study the wallet in his hand. It was small and black leather, probably a gift. There was a picture too, just as she expected. It showed a girl around thirteen with blond hair and bangs, smiling in her school uniform. "Katie", if she had any luck. 

"Half-past two," the man told her helpfully.

The girl thanked him with a smile, paid for her coffees, then left the shop. 

She walked around the block to get out of the old couple's sight before visiting the  _ Gotham Gazelle _ 's official website on her phone. The dead girl's name was Joanne, but her surname wasn't published and there was no photo of her. She was found the day before yesterday, with twelve identical knife-wounds on her body. The police said they were looking for the culprit, but they clearly didn't have much to go on, given their lack of suspects.

Marinette took out her sketchbook and started scribbling down some notes.

_ Joanne _

_ 16 yrs old _

_ Lives in Gotham _

_ Student _

She paused. The uniform on Katie's picture was blue with a red tie. Gotham didn't have many schools, but they all had different uniforms. Blue and red meant Gotham Academy.

_ Student in Gotham Academy _

A quick Facebook search later she had the girl's last name and profile picture. Bless the modern age.

If she had to be in Gotham, she might as well not die in boredom, right?

St. Anthony Street was a little over thirty minutes from the Wayne Tower. She had time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, coffee is my nectar and comments are my ambrosia, so penny for your thoughts!


	4. Bloody Noses and Broken Bones

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for violence!

_ She smelled blood. Why was she smelling blood? _

_ The ground seemed not to exist anymore. Was she falling? She could no longer control her body, nothing worked the way it should've. She wasn't sure what was wrong, maybe everything. _

_ Was the sky still there? Or did she just imagine it? The cold air stung her eyes and she saw nothing but unforgiving gray and sickening purple. Everything was too loud, even though there were no sounds, were there? There was something shiny, _ so, so shiny, _somewhere in the back of her mind she was supposed to know it was the Sun, but she was looking at the ground, how could she see the Sun? _

_ Oh, right, there was no ground. There was no sky either, she knew that because the birds started falling like cheap toys, she could hear their bones crack as they collided with something that should've been the concrete but of course it wasn't. _

Her heart wasn't beating_. She didn't know how she noticed but once it was there her thoughts started flashing crazy fast, she couldn't follow them, she tried to blink to clear her mind but her eyes weren't real. She knew her organs were just an illusion too but she tried to breathe nevertheless. Instantly, some kind of maniacal happiness drilled its way into her skull (it _hurt _ ). After all, there was no air to breathe in, right? _ Silly_. _

_ She realized time stopped working and she heard herself laugh regardless of not having a physical body. Something was melting. " _ Reality_," she thought cheerfully, reaching for the dense liquid, its color not similar to anything she ever saw. It felt like silk and oil and cream, smelled of expensive cosmetics and herbs and _death_. _

_ "Beautiful." _

_ *** _

On a Tuesday afternoon, with the Sun shining and the birds chirping on the trees, a normal person would never have thought that the city was home to some of the most ruthless criminals on the planet.

For the untrained eye, Gotham looked just like any other concrete-jungle; a little sad, a little shady, a little bit mean sometimes, but otherwise safe. However, Marinette saw the wordless ways of communication between the residents, the way mothers glanced into every alley before turning around the corner, the teenagers walking in large groups to be safer.

If you were a young girl in Gotham and weren't either a complete idiot or in possession of the strength of a hundred Bruce Lees, you didn't go walking around alone. Not to the post office, not to school, not to get Nutella at two AM (no matter how sad that was).

These rules got stricter the deeper Marinette dived into the city. It was fascinating how in only so many minutes, the business and relative safety of the Wayne Tower disappeared as if it was never there to begin with. 

Crime Alley was the darkest, most dangerous part of Gotham, the cream of the cream, one could say, as long as the cream was brown like dry blood and rotten to its very core. It wasn't always like that, but time tends to bring the worst out of everything. 

Marinette was halfway to St. Anthony Street when she heard a weak voice.

"Okay, just... please, don't hurt us."

"I said give me your wallet!" said a slightly louder voice. 

Marinette leaned against the wall and glanced around the corner carefully. A man almost twice her size was standing with his back turned to her, holding a gun to another man's chest, who shielded a little boy with his body.

The smaller man put his wallet in the mugger's outstretched hand. The bastard put it in his back pocket then eyed the man's shaking posture, looking for something else to steal.

"Now, your watch." The little boy whimpered as his father reached to take his watch off. Marinette moved quickly and silently, the way an animal moves in the final moments before killing its prey. By the time someone could notice her, she was standing behind the mountain of a man, her hand already hitting the painful point on his nape, just under his skull. 

The mugger yelped and started falling forward but Marinette was already there, hitting the gun out of his hand before he could accidentally pull the trigger, yanking him back by his arm, away from the father and son. She rubbed the pressure point inside his bicep as she stepped in front of him, making sure his arm wasn't strong enough to grab her, then took a well-controlled breath and let it out while swinging her arm and hitting his nose from the bottom, knocking him out completely. She made sure not to let go of his arm until he was on the ground, she didn't want him to break his skull when he landed on the concrete.

Once they were all safe and sound (some less than others), she wiped her hands in her light blue jeans and looked at the shaken up family. The father was staring at her blankly but the boy looked genuinely scared. _ Of her._ She took a step backward, thinking about apologies and explanations. 

Why did she do this? She could've had waited until the man let them go and confronted him farther away. She should've taken his gun sooner and hit his ribs instead of his nose. That would've been less frightening to see, right? God, she was an idiot. 

The father's grateful voice pulled her out of her thoughts.

"Thank-... thank you. You saved our lives." The little boy stepped out from behind his dad and nodded sheepishly.

Marinette took a shaky breath and realized the mugger's gun was still on the pavement. How could she forget that? She quickly picked it up, checked it with practiced movements (akumas weren't the only thing in Paris), and made sure the safety is on before giving it to the father.

"Do you know how to handle a gun?" she asked mostly for the sake of formality. She was pretty sure people in Gotham were prepared enough when it came to guns. She made sure to mask her accent, it wasn't that hard to find a french girl in this city, and she had to be careful.

"Yes, I do."

There was a small pause.

"Umm..." she shifted awkwardly, "could you not tell the police I was here?"

That wasn't enough. She knew it. She had to give him something that could justify lying to the cops.

"I'm here with my class, and I think I wasn't supposed to wander this far... I just don't want to get into bigger trouble, I'm sorry."

The man nodded, holding her gaze; a vow of silence holier than any oath made in curt. It came from gratitude and kindness.

She quickly said her goodbyes and took off just as the man dialed the police. She sure-as-hell didn't have enough time to visit the crime scene now.

***

When she got back to the meeting point, thirty minutes before the time they agreed on, she realized her mistake: she didn't have a pair. It was too late. She was forced to go sit with Mrs. Bustier and the stressed-out tour guide, then the teacher insisted that she sat next to her on the bus the way back to their hotel.

By the time she managed to get her off her back, it was already time for dinner and she was seriously considering to kill herself with a fork.

When she climbed up to the roof, Jeremy was already there.

"Hi. What's up? You look like shit," he greeted her.

"Thanks, it must be the jacket."

"You know what I mean."

"I mean, is it more like dog poop or goose poop? Because you see, I was going for the first one, but now I'm concerned-"

"Okay, I get it, I'm sorry!" he said, interrupting her before she could enjoy the situation any longer. She grinned at him in response.

"What's up with the Eskimo-gear?" he asked, gesturing at the red scarf and gloves she was wearing.

"Bold words coming from a guy in a ski mask."

"It's not a ski mask, okay?"

"Yes, it is."

"But it's cool."

"It's cheap."

"Ohh, shut up Miss Give-Me-All-The-Blankets-Or-I'm-Gonna-Freeze-Right-Here-And-It'll-Be-Your-Problem!"

"That was _one _time!

"We've only known each other for a day, one is plenty enough!"

She stuck out her tongue and sat down next to him.

"What's that?" she asked, noticing something in his hand.

"This? Well, yesterday we talked about child-psychology and stuff and there is this guy, Tamás Vekerdy, who is pretty good, so I thought I could show it to you."

"Okay, just let me get the blankets," she said, standing up.

"Bring extras this time!" he shouted after her.

"Bring your IQ this time!" she shouted back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your comments keep me alive enough to write after getting home from ten hours of school, so they're highly appreciated!


	5. 16-Year-Old Girl Brutally Murdered During the Afternoon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A quick glance at the newspaper

** 16-Year-Old Girl Brutally Murdered During the Afternoon **

_The police have no suspects_

* * *

> "Joanne, a 16 years old student in Gotham, was found dead on Friday afternoon with twelve identical knife-wounds on her chest and torso. Her friends and family did not answer our questions, but we tried to get as much information as we could.
> 
> Crime Alley's latest victim? 
> 
> As usual, the police's official statement did not give much clarity regarding the incident, but one of the few things we can be sure of is, that Joanne's body was found on the 17th of March, around four in the afternoon on St. Anthony Street. 
> 
> While it is possible we are talking about another victim of the crime-hole we know as Crime Alley, that would also mean the surfacing of a new and highly aggressive criminal. There are no documented cases similar to this one in the past year, where the culprit is still at large.
> 
> The police have no idea what is going on 
> 
> Another thing that came through is, that there are absolutely no suspects as of yet.
> 
> There were no signs of defense on the girl's body, they found no usable DNA and no arrest happened.
> 
> Joanne took the family dog for a walk after getting home from school. An hour later, the parents heard the dog bark in front of the house, but their daughter was nowhere in sight.
> 
> After she didn't answer her phone, the parents immediately called the police. Another half an hour later, Joanne's dead body was found by pedestrians. The arriving officers identified the girl, but the murder weapon wasn't found.
> 
> They  _ "didn't think much into it"  _
> 
> A few inhabitants of the neighborhood described a small, high-pitched scream coming from the street between 3 and 4 PM.
> 
> _ "Screaming kids aren't rare around here. They fall, get scared, and throw tantrums all the time. It didn't sound any different from the usual, so I didn't think much into it," _ claimed one of them.
> 
> We all know Gotham's history is full of black spots. Will this case become one of them?"

_\- Gotham Gazelle, March 18, 2019_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought I should share the Gotham Gazelle's article with you, it might make the story more colorful.  
If everything goes fine the next chapter comes tomorrow, but I don't dare to make any promises.  
Nobody checked this but me, we die dumb and full of grammar mistakes.


	6. Cats and Dogs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this got way longer than expected, and I've re-written it like a thousand times, so I have to post it before I go completely crazy.  
Enjoy!

Marinette almost died that night. It was so incredibly stupid, that if she hadn't felt so shitty in the morning, she might've had laughed at it.

She blamed Jeremy. They were sitting on the roof until five AM when he had to leave - probably to get ready for school, but Marinette didn't ask. 

He wasn't supposed to stay for so long in the first place, but she started teaching him French, and he was so hilariously incompetent, they forgot to check the time. He was pretty freaked out when he realized it was almost morning.

Okay. That sucks but no biggie, right? 

Honestly, everything would've been perfectly fine if Jeremy'd let her drink her coffee. She went down to get one around two AM when she was already on the verge of passing out - forty-two hours of not sleeping will do that to you, but as soon as she put it down on the roof, Jeremy accidentally knocked it over. She watched as the sacred liquid painted the cold concrete black, and didn't go back for a new cup.

After he left, she fell asleep. On the roof. In the cold.

Ladybugs and cold didn't go well together. By the time Tikki decided to come out of the hotel room and check on her, the Sun was already up, and Marinette's body was freezing. She was still asleep, of course, because being half-dead usually isn't enough to wake her up.

When the kwami shooked her awake, everything hurt. She couldn't feel her legs and hands, her eyes seemed to roll out of their sockets any minute, and she was so_ freaking _cold. It took her an hour to feel her fingers again, and Tikki used the time to lecture her about her sleeping habits. She had a point, not as if she would ever tell her that.

So yes, it was _definitely _ Jeremy's fault. 

***

After breakfast and on Marinette's side, a few hectoliters of green tea, Mrs. Bustier and Miss Alarie, a relatively new teacher who was accompanying them on their trip, decided to take them on a walk. In Gotham. Even Marinette's sleep-deprived and frozen-over brain could see the fault in that plan. Multiple faults, to be exact.

But given that there was no responsible adult on sight - or a slightly intelligent goose who could point that out, - they went on a walk.

Mrs. Bustier went out front, Miss Alarie was at the end of the line, and Marinette was walking a few steps behind her because she liked to think she wasn't a complete idiot and had no desire to see all her classmates die from a threat she didn't see coming.

At least they were pretty entertaining to watch.

Adrien was reading a book he got the day before without looking up, not falling over once, which would've been impressive if he wasn't Chat Noir for three years in the past. Nino was listening to music with his headphones on - not realizing he forgot to plug it into his phone, so everyone could hear the electronic tones blaming from his speaker. Rose pushed her face to every single shop window they walked past, and Alix was trying very hard to not fall on her face in roller skates. Meanwhile, Mylene somehow got gum in her hair, which she and Ivan have been struggling to get out for the past half hour. 

Chloe was fighting with Lila over some celebrity's personal life, while next to them, Juleka and Sabrina were watching a movie on a small smartphone, with Max lecturing them about megabytes, satellites and something else, that also ended in '-ites'. Perhaps egg whites. Or gravesites. If she looked very hard, she could even notice the way Nathaniel moved to the rhythm of Nino's music while playing a game on Max's phone.

Kim seemed to be the only one actually looking at the buildings and people around them, and Alya was... well, Alya was live-tweeting _everything_. She tended to be a little over-enthusiastic sometimes.

The streets kept getting more and more familiar as they got near to the Wayne Tower. Marinette was just about to disappear and get to know the city's coffee machines when turning in the corner, someone ran into her. Literally.

She grabbed the poor man by his waist just in time to save him from falling on his face, but let go as soon as he got his balance back. She didn't like touching with people, especially not strangers.

"Huh, I'm sorry," he said, panting heavily. "I wasn't paying attention."

"It's fine," muttered Marinette, giving him a concerned look. "Are you alright?"

"Sure, just..." The man stopped, leaned on his knees, and tried to even out his breathing, "Just give me a minute."

Marinette glanced at her class walking away, not noticing her departure and found herself grateful for having a reason to sneak off for a bit.

She used the time to take a better look at the man. He was around thirty, tall and muscular, so he must've run a lot to be so out of breath. He was wearing an expensive suit. A_ very _expensive designer suit that matched his hair's rich black color perfectly. He looked like someone who just walked off a magazine's front page, except that his tie was messy - he probably tried to loosen it while running. However, the truly upsetting thing about him was - and Marinette had to check it multiple times to be sure, - that he had only one shoe.

His left side was fine, but on his right foot, there was nothing but a wet and dirty, Superman-themed sock.

"Okay, so let's start this over," the man said, straightening up and dusting off his suit-jacket. "Hi. I'm Dick. I'm sorry for bumping into you." He held out his hand for a handshake, which Marinette simply ignored, looking at him expectantly.

He let his arm down and dug into his hair awkwardly.

"Okay, so... you didn't happen to see a dog around here, did ya'? Big, brown, might've had a shoe in his mouth..."

"No," Marinette said slowly, masking her accent, but her thoughts were already flashing rapidly. "But how about I help you get your shoe back?" she started, noting the wary look Dick gave her.

He was about to ask her why on Earth would she do that but she lifted a finger, telling him to wait.

In Gotham, everything had a price, and she was familiar with that. She saw how embarrassed he was. She could work with that.

"And in exchange, you tell me how you lost it." She gave him a confident smile to convince him of her interest.

"How do I know you can help me?" he asked seriously, but there was a playful glare in his eyes.

"You don't. You're just going to have to _ trust _me, Superman." 

With that, she started walking to the direction her class just came from. Dick paced after her easily and frowned.

"You know you shouldn't be walking around here alone, right?"

"I'm not alone. You're with me," she grinned.

"Yeah, well you shouldn't be walking around with strangers either."

She gave him a flat look and said, "You're wearing a Superman-themed sock and you lost your shoe. I figured you won't kill me for fun."

"Hey, have you heard of the Joker? He is a freakin' clown!"

"Everyone knows clowns are creepy," Marinette told him and that was enough for her to consider the topic closed.

Dick let out a resigned sigh and for a few moments, they walked in silence.

"Now what?" he asked finally.

"Now," Marinette said, opening the door to a butcher's shop, "we get some bait."

***

"Okay," She could see the gears turning in Dick's head, "but you have to promise you won't laugh."

"That wasn't part of the deal." 

They bought a few nice bones for the dog and were now walking around seemingly aimlessly, searching. They both knew exactly where they were but they weren't about to show that to the other.

Marinette grinned as Dick let out yet another sigh and started the story.

"So. I was sitting on a bench, having breakfast, minding my own business and stuff, ya' know?" Marinette hummed in agreement and almost told Dick to speak more slowly but she decided that would be too cruel. "So I'm sitting there, and then - don't laugh, _ I see you're about to laugh, _ \- and then I feel something on my shoe. I look at it, and it's a _ freaking kitty!_ Like a legit, gray kitty playing with my shoelaces!" Marinette had a hard time keeping a straight face but kept nodding. "So naturally, I take off my shoe, because a kitty wants to play with me, and I have a _heart_, you know - stop grinning! - And I start to play with the cat because you should've seen her, she was adorable! But then here comes this big, dark blob running towards us, it's a fuckin' dog_, _ you get it? Like what was the chance of that? And it's running with freaking_ light speed, - _ and I told you to stop grinning! - And it scares the kitty away, and then, - of course, my shoe is on the ground at this point, - he _picks it up _and runs off! Like what the hell?" he finally stopped gesticulating wildly and let out a frustrated groan.

"And you ran after it," Marinette continued, trying to hold back her laughter.

"Of course! I didn't think it was gonna disappear! I thought it'll run around a little, then lie down or something."

She continued grinning but Dick pointedly ignored her until they turned around a corner. Suddenly, he grabbed her arm and whispered cautiously.

"That's him!"

"Really? I thought it's a different big, brown dog chewing formal footwear," Marinette said quietly and brushed his hand off. 

She moved slowly but surely. She didn't go towards the dog, she crossed the street and set the bag of bones off, showing it to the animal. It was looking at her with murder in its eyes. She stood up and calmly walked back to Dick's side.

"Now, wait," she told him.

A minute passed before the dog walked to the bones, sniffed them, then started tearing the bag apart. Dick was staring at its fangs as Marinette tugged him by his shirt. She picked up the chewed shoe lying abandoned.

"Here you go," she told him, holding it up with only two fingers.

"Thanks." He grimaced. "How did you know he was going to be here?"

_ 'I noticed this place when I was looking for potential escape routes for my class while walking. The dog didn't go to our direction, so it must've come this way, and this seemed like a good place to start.' _

"I'm good with animals," she said instead, winking. "And by the way, how do you know it's a 'he'?"

"I just know. Instincts," he said while jumping on one leg, trying to put on his ruined shoe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are my brain-food, comfort-food, and shit-I-forgot-I-have-an-exam-tomorrow-food, so penny for your thoughts!


	7. Light and Darkness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter??? Already???  
Yeah, don't get used to it, I have so many exams this week (and the next one too), that I think I'm gonna just straight up die.  
So naturally, I'm procrastinating.  
Yey.
> 
> (This wasn't edited nearly as much as any of the other chapters, even though I wrote at least ten different opening scenes for it. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.)  
And apparently, my aesthetic is writing Gotham's weather. I have no idea how that happened.

Life sucks.

Sometimes, she stared into the darkest abyss and even the mere existence of it terrified her. Other times, she looked back at her life and thought, "the abyss would be pretty comfortable, after all".

She didn't know when her life turned into a cheap video-tape. The sounds were distorted, and the protagonist was horrible, but she kept watching it anyway.

***

The rain was flooding the gray streets of Gotham. The streetlights were dimmed by the thick curtain of dust and fog. Neon billboards flickered over shops, the cars sprinkled dirty water on the few pedestrians who didn't run from the weather as if it was the plague.

The rain disturbed Marinette's senses. Dick's quiet swearing was oppressed by the deafening sound of dropping water and shrieking vehicles. There were too many smells. Her vision was blurry, her red raincoat didn't protect her from getting soaking wet. She put her insensate hands in her pockets to keep them from shaking violently, but it still took all her self-control to keep herself together.

"'You okay?" Dick shouted on her right side, giving up the fight with the umbrella she gave him and settling for a small coverage over his face.

"Yes," shouted back Marinette, but her voice was lost in the downpour. 

"We're almost there!" He tucked the girl a little closer and tried to get the umbrella to protect her.

"I know," she muttered even though there was no way he could've heard her.

The buildings were closing over their heads, merging with the dark clouds. A car passed beside them, and Marinette screwed her eyes shut. It was too loud.

"Marinette?" she heard a familiar voice say. Suddenly, it was easier to breathe.

"Adrien?"

"God, are you okay? I've been looking for you." She could finally see him in his large, black raincoat, rushing towards her with an umbrella.

"Sure," she muttered, hoping her voice didn't tremble from the cold. She was grateful that he spoke in English instead of French, it would've been considerably harder for her to keep her cover otherwise.

Adrien stood next to her, holding the umbrella over her head. He only then seemed to notice the man on her side, and she wondered if he was just pretending to be normal or if he really didn't pay attention.

"Hi! Who are you?" he asked Dick kindly, but Marinette could hear the wariness in it.

"Umm..." Dick seemed to be lost in thought for a second before he answered. "Hi. My name is Dick. You are Marinette's classmate, right?"

"Yes, I am." He paused and smiled politely. "I think we should go, it's very cold out here." He was waiting for Marinette to agree, but she didn't say anything.

"Of course. I've to go too, I'm really late for work," Dick said, glancing at the Wayne Tower. "Thanks for the umbrella," he smirked one last time before shoving the dripping object into Adrien's hand and making a run for the tower. They both stared at him as he cut his way through the rain.

"Come on, let's get you to somewhere warm," said Adrien, finally turning to her. "Can I touch you?"

A few years ago, Marinette told him how uncomfortable she felt sometimes when people touched her. Since then, he always asked for her permission, especially when she was in a bad mood. She had a strong urge to roll her eyes dramatically every time he did it. It was so... _Adrien _of him. He always respected people's boundaries. Maybe that's why he didn't fight his father. 

The guilt was climbing up inside Marinette's throat as she remembered her investigation on Hawkmoth. Half a year ago, she started suspecting it was Gabriel Agreste, but she said nothing. Now she was almost sure and still didn't tell anyone. Not even Master Fu. She knew that if something happened to her, Tikki would tell him what he needed to know. If for some reason - Marinette didn't even want to think about that, - she couldn't, she had at least four different ways to make the guardian know.

She looked at Adrien. He seemed to be happy. His years as Chat Noir made him more confident. He was a lot like Chat now, just like how she was more and more like Ladybug. Psychologically, it was fascinating. In practice, it terrified her sometimes.

Instead of answering, she hugged Adrien's waist with one arm as they walked to the nearest diner.

***

After some getting some hot cocoa and warm food, - they both knew Marinette was not the best at eating healthily and regularly, he sat down beside her and put her freezing hands between his, warming them up. She gave him a grateful half-smile.

"Next time you decide to disappear, you could really send me a text or something. I tend to check the weather forecast, unlike_ some people,_" he said. "Why did you have a raincoat and an umbrella on you anyway?"

Marinette was starting to feel her hands again, and her mind was no longer screaming from confusion.

"I tend to come prepared, unlike _some people, _who constantly forget to bring a toothbrush to trips," she said mockingly.

"I mean, I don't do that _constantly,_" he protested.

"Every. Single. Time," she told him. "I think I actually brought_ two _spares, just in case."

"Nah, I'm good, Nino brought one for me too," he muttered, avoiding her gaze. Marinette snorted.

***

The teachers gave them the afternoon off again. The rain stopped around noon and Gotham was swimming in sunlight. The wet streets were glimmering as the light touched the asphalt, people slowly poked their heads out of their homes, a few annoyed cats were roaming around, showing off their wonderfully dry pelage.

Marinette walked slowly, admiring the sky-high buildings and silently memorizing all the shops and alleys she went by. There was a chance she was going to forget most of it by tomorrow, and once again, she cursed her brain for needing so much sleep.

St. Anthony Street was not a pretty view. Thanks to the rain, Joanne's blood was painting small, brownish-red veins on the concrete. The original red puddle was still visible, and even though it faded a lot, it was _big_.

Near the large, rust-colored spot, there was a smaller one.'_ Must be where her hand fell next to her side,' _Marinette realized. That would mean the girl entered the street from where Marinette stood, the attacker jumped at her almost immediately, and she fell backwards. The paper said the wounds were on her chest and torso, so she must've landed on her back, then the attacker stabbed her twelve times and took the murder weapon with them. Marinette could replay the scene in her mind.

_ Joanne must've been in a hurry because she doesn't notice someone already waiting for her. The attacker grabs her hands to keep her from escaping and knocks her back. Then they get their knife out and Joanne screams, but nobody bothers to check what's wrong. The attacker stabs her again and again. At some point, the girl is conscious enough to touch her bloody T-shirt and try applying pressure on a wound. It doesn't matter. Then her hands fall to her sides, her bloody palm leaving a mark on the asphalt, and the murderer finally stands up, looking at the body in front of their eyes. They're panting heavily. They leave with the knife, their clothes sprayed with blood. _

Twelve stab-wounds would clearly state it was personal, but when it comes to hate crimes like this, it's usually pretty obvious who did it. Not many people have enemies capable of something like _this_.

There were multiple faults in her version of the events. 

She walked around the dark spot slowly, hundreds of ideas crossing her mind, most of them faulty and unusable. 

She rubbed her face frustratedly. If she wanted to make something out of this, she needed to sleep first.

She took off her red backpack with the black-and-white apple blossoms she made a few years prior - when she realized that the lock pick set, the handbooks, the Swiss Army Knife, the skein, scissors and needles, her not-so-secret green tea stash, the matches, her phone and the small army of power banks she always carried with her didn't fit her old purse anymore, not to mention Tikki and her cookies. 

She took out the thermos of coffee she got on the way back with Dick and drank half of it in one gulp. Now that she was thinking about it, she might've liked coffee after all. Tikki and Kaalki both frowned at her in perfect sync inside the bag but given they were in the middle of the street, they didn't say anything.

Marinette checked the time and decided to stick around for a little more. She was wandering the block slowly, noting all the broken doors and windows on the way.

She was examining St. Anthony Street for the fourth time when she noticed something in the few threads of grass sticking out where the road and the pavement met. She went closer.

For a moment, she thought it was a wrapper or a piece of plastic, but as she took it between her gloved fingers, she realized it was a small, round wooden-bead painted ultramarine blue. 

Three days passed since the incident. Anyone could've lost a single bead since then. Actually, it might've been there for weeks, but she still slipped it into her pocket before going back to the Wayne Tower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are like macarons: fun. They're fun. That's it. I'm tired.  
Please share your thoughts!


	8. Lord Annoyance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiiii!  
This is... long. Probably the longest chapter I'm going to have, but it's all only one scene and I just couldn't cut it in half.  
Thank you for your comments! They make my whole week!  
Some of you pointed out a few mistakes in the last chapter, I hope it's all good now! ^^ And please tell me if there are any weird sentences or typos or anything.  
Multiple people told me that the last chapter's storm came very suddenly, so I re-read the sixth chapter and as it turns out, the sentence about the weather was lost in the editing. It all looked very dark and moody in my head, so I didn't notice there was no description of it. Thank you for telling me, I'm definitely going to correct that.
> 
> Damian meets Marinette, I REPEAT, DAMIAN MEETS MARINETTE.

It was Monday night and Damian Wayne already hated the week.

Tim finally passed out on Saturday and did nothing but sleep all weekend, so on one hand, now he was capable of speaking in full sentences. On the other hand, all of his sentences were about the process of etching and _nobody_ knew why, so it wasn't any less problematic.

Dick came home with several holes in his shoe and refused to speak about it.

Jason didn't eat anything but pork for a week straight and this morning he swore to go vegetarian.

Bruce was in the process of finding new hobbies - Tim said it was midlife crisis, Jason said the old man was finally going crazy and Cass was out of town, so she just yelled at them via video chat. Barbara and Steph laughing their asses off every time the topic came up didn't help either, but after seeing the anvil in the living room while going to get breakfast, Damian was starting to agree with Jason.

On top of it all, some idiot under the name of Dark Nomad killed a chicken, painted obscene pictures on the walls of one of Bruce's apartments with its blood, then for some reason, they stole some garden interior and part of the fence. Just _fantastic_.

And guess who had to track him down and arrest him? Robin. Because his family was a bunch of freaking sadists.

On top of it all, when he finally arrived on the rooftop where the petty villain was spotted two days in a row, the idiot wasn't alone.

Robin landed quietly, hid behind a metal staircase leading the upper parts of the building and stopped to listen to the conversation going down between the two shadowy forms. He was already planning revenge in the back of his mind - it would've been ridiculously easy to poison at least two out of his three brothers. Not too badly but enough for them to have an unpleasant couple of days.

"Did you manage to sleep during the day, or should I be worried about you suddenly falling down from here because of exhaustion?" one of the forms asked flatly, a young girl sitting on the edge of the roof. She looked tiny compared to the Nomad sitting beside her, but she didn't seem to be afraid at all. Her body language was taunting and open, her dark hair shimmered in the light coming from the streets below as she turned her head towards the boy. She had a slight French accent.

"Nah, I had double English in the afternoon, so I'm good," the Nomad said, playing with a stray thread on his hoodie. "You?"

"I slept on the bus..." the girl started, trailing off. She tilted her head, concentrating on something. "Could you give me a minute?" she asked, standing up. For a moment, Damian felt relieved. She was already leaving.

Then she turned towards him.

She could've just heard something. She could've just checked out the area. It could've been a coincidence, but she was staring right at him, even though he was sure he wasn't visible in the dark.

She walked towards his hiding place with no hesitation or fear. He was standing there motionlessly as she got closer. He studied her form, looking for weapons and weak points. She was wearing a warm cardigan with jeans and dark boots. He eyed her scarf and gloves suspiciously. It wasn't _that_ cold, but he didn't see anything hidden in them.

Her red lipstick matched her scarf, her hair was tied into a loose braid coming forward at the side of her neck, dancing gracefully when a light breeze caught it. Her body language was still way too open and she foolishly grabbed the railing of the staircase before peeking behind it, leaving her torso even more vulnerable.

If he was ever planning on confronting her, he would've changed his mind after that. She was clearly harmless when it came to physical combat.

What the hell was she doing here, then?

"Can I help you?" she asked, looking at where his mask covered his eyes. Her voice was toneless and her accent was gone. Robin wondered if he was just imagining it earlier. Maybe he was too deep in his thoughts to pay attention.

It happened a lot nowadays. Him, getting lost in his thoughts and not paying attention. At first, it annoyed him - and scared the living daylight out of him, not as if he was about to tell that to anyone. Now he knew it was part of being human. It meant he was getting healthier, as Alfred put it. Making mistakes was part of life and he wanted to have a life, right?

_Yes, he did._

Sometimes he looked at Bruce and his sorry brothers and realized that he already had a one. It made him feel weird. Happy, probably, but it was a new kind of happy. It made him want to smile at the most random times and help Alfred with chores. It made him have this... desire to go after Bruce when he disappeared to his garden to calm down, to bring home some donuts for Dick every time he passed that shop he liked, to take Jason to Disneyland on his birthday, to make Cass smile more often, to pull up the security footages from the Cave on his computer, so he could check on Tim without him knowing.

It was terrifying and he wouldn't have changed it for anything in the world.

"Robin?" the girl asked impatiently. Damn, he zoned out. He cleared his throat, trying to find the right thing to say.

"Errm... do you realize you are sitting with a criminal?" Good job, Damian, your brothers would be proud. Why not ask her her favorite color too, maybe that will help. He was prepared to hear Jason's amused words through the comms, but surprisingly, his brother stayed quiet.

"Are you concerned about my safety?" The girl narrowed her eyes.

He straightened his back and cleared his mind.

"Actually, I'm here to arrest the Dark Nomad," he told her, trying to sound professional. Not as if it mattered anymore.

"Why?"

"Damaging private property, theft, and vandalism."

"Could you elaborate? Picking flowers in a park could be considered all three of those." Her voice was mocking now.

Damian stared at her. She was at least a head shorter than him, with no weapons. He was _Robin_. She was either incredibly dangerous or very stupid, and he had a hard time believing in the first scenario.

"He killed an animal, draw obscene pictures on the street with its blood, did damage that's repairing will take hundreds of dollars, stole garden interior... should I continue?"

"When did he do all that?" the girl asked. She didn't seem surprised at all.

"Why would I tell you?" frowned Robin. "I'm here to arrest him, that's the only important thing." Harmless or not, she was getting annoying.

"Well, you can't legally make arrests given that you're not a police officer, which means that you have absolutely no reason to be here. You might as well go home," she explained simply. Her voice was toneless again, she spoke as if she was just stating facts, - which she did, after all.

Damian's blood was starting to boil. Did the psychopaths roaming this city have a right to murder people? No. Did they have any right to hurt civilians? No. Was any of the things they did legal? No.

Who was this kid to come and tell him about rights, when his family seemed to be the only ones protecting them?

The girl was looking at him as if she was staring into his soul, then suddenly, she smirked.

"Not as if that would stop you," she said, and Robin looked at her quizzically. "But I have a feeling that you're after the wrong guy, so if you told me when he did all that, it would clear a few things."

He was lost. What did this girl want? She was too weird to be stupid. She let the railing go now and was standing with her arms at her sides, her head slightly tilted.

"Today, between two and three AM," he told her finally, curious about her reaction.

She stared right into his eyes, even though his mask was hiding them and said, "He was with me."

Robin didn't see anything about her body language betraying her, but she must've noticed he didn't believe her because she continued.

"We were talking about Tamás Vekerdy and Bruno Bettelheim. They're psychologists who often write about children. He arrived around midnight, and when he left it was already past five in the morning, so there is no way he could've done anything unless he has an evil twin."

He scoffed angrily. When he spoke again, he was hissing the words from behind his clenched teeth.

"These things don't take long. He might've just slipped away for a few minutes and came back, _unless of course_ if you were in the same position for _five hours_." He might've also growled a little. He was standing only inches from her now, looming over her.

"That's not too hard to check, your Highness." She cocked her head and held his gaze fearlessly. "Where did all this happen?"

He was about to bite back but he stopped abruptly.

Okay, so he might've been a little wrong. If the girl was telling the truth, the guy should've disappeared for at least one and a half hours to get to the scene from here. Not as if that meant anything, she could've easily lied. He just didn't notice it.

A voice saved him from having to answer.

"Marinette? Is everything okay?" The Dark Nomad was walking towards them. When he noticed Robin, a terrified expression took over his confused one. He was about to go and stand between the girl and the vigilante when she lifted her arm to stop him, not moving her gaze away from Robin. The Nomad looked like a caged animal but didn't try to fight her.

"_Lord Annoyance_ here states that last night, you cloned yourself between _The Book of Diaries_ and _NurtureShock_, and went to draw booties and steal a bunch of garden gnomes."

The Nomad opened his mouth to say something but Robin beat him to it.

"Okay, so first of all, it wasn't just "booties" and they were drawn with blood, which makes it considerably worse." Jason, who was listening to everything he said trough the comms the whole time, chose that moment to burst out laughing. He did his best to ignore him.

"Second of all, a lot of things were stolen, not just..." yep, that sentence was a bad idea, "_Garden gnomes_."

"Why do you think he did it in the first place?" the girl, - Marinette cut back.

"It was private property. There was a camera."

"Whose?"

He took a second to consider the possible fallback of the answer. The existence of Bruce Wayne wasn't a secret. Neither was the fact that he owned multiple buildings around the city. Maybe it was going to scare the villain enough that he confesses.

"Bruce Wane's," he said finally. The girl's undisturbed expression made him feel uneasy. "Have you heard of him?"

"Oh, you mean _that's_ who the big ass tower in the middle of the city is named after? I thought it was the ship name of _watery rain_ or _way of pain_ or something." Her words were dripping from sarcasm.

'Who are you talking to? What did they say?' asked Jason like an excited child but Damian once again ignored him.

"Well, I'm sorry, but his alibi is pretty shaky, you know. Villains can be very convincing here, in case you didn't notice." He didn't think _this guy_ could convince anyone, but it was possible.

"Yeah, his ski mask really makes me shake in fear," Marinette said flatly.

The villain finally got a chance to say something but his moment didn't last long.

"It's not a-"

"Yes, it is. Shut up." Marinette pinched the bridge of her nose. "He is wearing a hoodie and a mask ever since... birth, probably. How did anyone recognize him?"

"He left his signature," Robin told her. He wasn't even angry anymore, he was just very annoyed.

Marinette froze. She almost seemed to forget about Robin as she finally broke eye contact and turned around.

"You... have a _signature_?" she asked the Dark Nomad, who was still standing behind her, ready to jump at any moment.

He opened and closed his mouth a few times. It reminded Robin of a distressed duck.

"Kinda," he said quietly.

"Why would you do that?" asked Marinette, gesticulating wildly.

"It's part of the aesthetic, okay?" he explained with a hurt expression.

"Hey, I'm accusing you of a crime here!" reminded them Robin. This was taking way longer than he wanted it to.

Marinette once again turned to him, let out a deep breath and arranged her face into a more professional expression.

Finally.

"Right," she started seriously. She gave him a second to compose himself, then continued. "_Boobs_."

The Dark Nomad snorted, but Marinette just gave him an unimpressed look and let out an exasperated sigh.

"Okay, so tell Mr. Wayne, that he should be looking for another idiot because I was looking after this one at the time."

Before he could answer, he heard Jason's voice in his ear.

_'There is a robbery going down at Chucko's. I'm going in.'_

Damian cursed quietly.

"Don't. Wait for me. I'll be there in two," he told him, placing his fingers on the comm so the two people standing in front of him knew he wasn't speaking to them.

"I have to go," he told them quickly, then took off before they could do as much as blink.

***

Marinette ran after the vigilante but stopped at the edge of the roof. She saw a dark form jumping over rooftops. After a few seconds, it disappeared and relief rushed over her body.

She was way too tired to think about how she just got into an argument with one of Gotham's heroes.

She closed her eyes and turned to go back to her room. She needed to sleep. A lot.

"You're kinda terrifying when you're sleep-deprived, did you know that?" said Jeremy, coming out from behind the metal staircase.

"I always am," answered Marinette, still not opening her eyes.

"Do you mean terrifying or sleep-deprived?" asked Jeremy confusedly.

Marinette gave him a small wave, then climbed back to the hotel without a word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Quiet chanting* comments, comments, comments  
*Chanting intensifies* comMEnts, COMments, coMMENTS  
*Thunder*  
*The flattering of wings and the sounds of scared birds*  
*Chanting* COMMENTS, COMMENTS, COMMENTS, COMMENTS


	9. Our Bizarre Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! I'm not sure how it happened, I had this chapter written weeks ago.  
From now on, the story will progress a little slower. I realized I needed more "filler" scenes to establish both the aesthetic and the already existing relationships.  
There were Questions on the last chapter! Yayy! I love questions!  
Here're the heights and ages of the characters:  
Marinette is 5'1 (155 cm)  
Damian is 5'10 (178 cm)  
Bruce is 6'2 (188 cm <--how tall is that? Geez!)  
Dick is also 5'10  
Jason is 6'0 (182 cm, also crazy tall)  
Tim is 5'5 (165 cm)  
Steph is also 5'5  
Barbara is 5'6 (168 cm)  
Jeremy is also 5'6, 'cus why not
> 
> Marinette is 16, nearly 17  
Damian has just turned 17  
Tim is around 22  
Jason and Cassandra are around 24  
Dick is around 30  
Barbara is... 33, I guess? (I choose the middle ground, so she is not the same age as Dick but not much older either)  
Alfred is immortal, of course  
Bruce is around 46 (Yes, I know he should be older and so should be Tim, but this way I have more freedom to play with character development.)  
Selina is around 44 and in a relationship with Bruce  
Ivy and Harley are also together, both are around 40  
Duke does not exist in this story (sorry Duke, I didn't know you exist until recently, so you won't be in this)  
Jeremy is around 17, Joanne was 16 and so were most of her friends, Marinette's classmates are around 16 and 17.

_"Come on, Joe, just keep your knees steady!"_

_"This was a horrible, horrible idea," she mumbled, struggling to keep her balance. Normally, she would've been upset about Noel's amused expression, but right now she had more pressing problems. Like staying alive._

_"Okay, just look at me and do what I do," Noel shouted from the end of the street. "First, you stand with your feet apart and you bend your knees." He moved to demonstrate._

_Joanne hesitated but slowly did as she was told._

_"Then you roll forward on one foot, and put your other foot to your heel, okay? Make sure to keep your skates moving in a 'V' shape, and you're going to be fine."_

_She watched in awe as he rolled to her in seconds and turned back in a graceful circle._

_"Can I at least hold onto you or something?"_

_When Noel offered to teach her, she had no idea it would be like this. Roller-skating always seemed ridiculously easy when he was the one doing it._

_"No way, Joey," he grinned. "I don't want you to pull me along when you fall."_

_"Fall?" she whispered and she was sure her face matched the white walls of her family's house that she was standing in front of. Noel was waiting for her at the end of the street, his black hair in bright contrast with his yellow T-shirt. Joanne wondered if he had any other clothes besides Ramones T-shirts and plain yellow ones._

_"Come on! You said you still have to study for the English exam, right? The sooner you learn to skate, the sooner you can do your nerdy stuff."_

_"May I remind you, that you're going to have the very same exam tomorrow as I will?" she asked mockingly, mostly to get some time._

_"No, you may not. Now let's see you rollin'," he chirped, grinning._

_Joanne took a deep breath and bent her knees. 'One leg after the other, one leg after the other, how hard can it be anyways?'_

_Very hard, apparently._

_She lost her sense of direction after three steps and started going towards the bushes lining the pavement. By the time she noticed it, it was already too late; she let out a small scream and rolled straight into the plants gracelessly._

_"Joe? Are you okay?" Noel rushed to her but there was a slight, amused undertone to his voice._

_Joanne groaned._

_"You're the worst friend ever. Did you know that?"_

_"Aww, I know you love me," he pouted._

_"Only if you let me study now. Enough excitement for today."_

_"You're the most boring person I've ever had the pleasure to meet."_

_She stuck out her tongue._

_"The teachers love me. I can get away with anything, so shut up. I could murder you tomorrow during third period, and they would completely ignore it as long as I get an A on my exam."_

_Noel just shrugged. They both knew she was probably right._

_"By the way, funny you should mention it, what's gonna be the topic of that English exam again?" he asked innocently, offering a hand._

_Joanne gave him the sternest look she was capable of as she grabbed his hand, but he just laughed and helped her out of the bush._

***

"What the hell, Red Hood?"

There was no robbery going down at Chucko's. In fact, Gotham was unusually quiet that night.

When Robin arrived at the scene, Jason was leaning against the wall of their favorite Italian restaurant, his hideous red mask hiding his face. He seemed deeply engaged in a conversation with Chucko, the man himself. At Robin's confused words, both men looked up, crossed their arms and stared at him with eerily identical smug expressions.

First of all, it was creepy. He made a mental note to make sure Jason spends less time around pasta. Scratch that, he needs to take a few photos of Jason and Chucko first so he can blackmail his brother, then make sure he spends less time around pasta. Second of all, he was in the middle of an arrest, even if it wasn't going very well. Red Hood had no right to call him away. Third of all, he was pretty sure why he did it and he didn't like it. Like, _at all_.

"Look who decided to show up!" started Jason way too cheerily for it to mean anything good.

"Come in, come in, I'm gonna get food," said Chucko, already from inside of the restaurant.

Damian glared at Jason with murder in his eyes but Jason just grinned and went inside, following the smell of pasta and vegetables.

***

"Okay, so you're telling me that you got your ass handed to you by a fourteen-year-old?" Jason laughed with his mouth full of leftover vegetarian pizza. The hatch - made for exactly this reason - on his mask was open, so the lower part of his face was visible and he could eat with his identity remaining unknown. Bits of green vegetables were sticking out from between his teeth.

"I did not get my ass handed to me!" snapped Damian. He tried to ignore his brother as the laughter got louder.

"Not many fourteen-year-olds are stupid enough to get into an argument with a bat." Chucko chuckled over his tea. That man was _always_ calm, but he still managed to not be boring. "Most of them would just... run away if they saw one of you."

Damian was about to agree but the words got stuck in his throat. _Was she stupid? _She had to be an excellent liar to fool him. He picked up a few things from Cass over the years, and he was good at spotting liars even before that.

Maybe she was telling the truth. That would've made the most sense.

"She might've been a little older. I'm not sure," he told them instead.

Jason stuffed another piece of broccoli in his mouth before saying anything.

"Whaff did 'ee loo' like?"

"Geez, why the hell do you take a bite right before speaking?" Damian groaned and threw a napkin at him, which he caught easily.

"That wasn't an answer," teased Chucko.

Damian sighed and dug into his salad.

"Dark hair, white skin, light eyes, around five foot... one, probably. Part Asian. She was wearing fashionable clothes and seemed to be friends with the Dark Nomad. Or maybe siblings."

They were usually comfortable with sharing information in front of Chucko, as long as it was nothing important. They'd known the man for years, both as civilians and vigilantes. They would help him by investigating shady people around the neighborhood, moving the boxes in the storage room, and on a few occasions, they even got him some good deals on kitchenware. In exchange, they were allowed to crash in his restaurant at night, telling stories and eating leftovers. It was nice. They trusted him, at least as much as they were capable of.

Jason hummed.

"Do you think she was telling the truth?"

Damian just shrugged and continued to eat his salad. For once, Jason got the message that the rest of the conversation was off-limits until they reached the Batcave.

He wasn't looking forward to it. Even though he told them the story broadly, he was sure his brother would find a way to get all the details and Babs would be glad to help him with it. She had too much free time ever since she was forced into a wheelchair. The doctors said it was another three months before she could start walking on her own again, and that was plenty of time for her to pull some elaborate pranks on all of them.

***

Damian no longer wondered about how many people lived in the Manor. It was pointless.

He knew that officially, there was he, Cassandra, Tim, Barbara, Alfred, and Bruce, but Babs was there because she needed help with getting around and living with them made things easier. Especially because this way, she didn't have to take a taxi to the Batcave every time she was needed as Oracle.

Steph was somehow always there. He had no idea how or why, but Bruce had basically adopted her by this point, and she had her own room in the Manor, even though no one called it her room without being smacked.

Selina called herself their mom. She was there every morning, and sometimes she didn't leave for days. They rolled with it because secretly, they kind of liked her.

Dick and Jason had their own apartments but crashed at the Manor every time there was a bigger case, or they just felt like it. There was an unwritten rule that they had to drop in at least once a week. A few months ago Dick introduced them to his girlfriend, Viv. She knew about Nightwing but not the rest of them yet. The dinner was awkward up until she told them she liked action movies and literature, and then suddenly, everyone was shouting the title of their favorite Marvel-movie. (Except for Jason, who was bombarding her with questions about Poe.)

So no, Damian was definitely not surprised when Stephanie was waiting for them in the Batcave with a waffle in one hand and a Pendrive in the other. When she exchanged the Pendrive with Jason to a small paper bag that most definitely contained tiramisu, he thought it was actually pretty fair. After all, he had more than enough blackmail-material to make sure Jason didn't out his conversation with the girl.

He was half-asleep in his room by the time he realized that Steph, on the other hand, was a problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I gave Dick a girlfriend, sue me. Don't worry, she is a badass, but she won't be getting too much screentime anytime soon.  
This will be posted on Tumblr once I can bear my Microsoft Word to work, and I can copy the links and the tag list.  
The beginning of this chapter might be weird now, but it's going to be important later.  
Comments keep me alive during the Christmas rush (I'm making hand-painted playing cards for my dad, and they've driven me crazy)...  
Here's a deal: if you like the story but can't think of anything to write, comment something along the lines of "Die, Gingerbread Man, DIE!". I'll throw ALL comments at the giant gingerbread man chasing me and if we're lucky, after Christmas passes, I'll still have some connection to reality.


	10. UPDATE (to be deleted later)

Hey!

First of all, I love you and you are the best. I never would've thought this fic was going to get this much attention, not to mention _positive_ attention. 

Yes, I'm definitely continuing this. Those who follow me on Tumblr might already know **I'm rewriting it**. Regarding essence, most scenes remain as they were, especially the dialogs but everything is under construction. Also, it got way longer. I'm going to post it as soon as everything is done, so if you keep an eye on your bookmarks, you'll definitely notice there are a few extra chapters when I post it.

**Why** am I doing this? I think both my language and writing skills got better since I started, and while I hope they're going to evolve even further, it bothered me that the chapters at the beginning reflect my style a lot less than I wanted them to. There were also some mistakes that were bugging me. Still, the most important reason is that now I have a more solid plan for the story. This includes the characters, the relationships, the magic, the plot and everything else, hopefully.

So hang on in there...? Pretty please? This is my top priority (besides school but oh well) and I _love _doing it (this is literally the most fun I've ever had with a project). 

Love

Persephone's Cat

P.S.: I see your flaming pitchforks and I offer you a piece of cake instead. There is a fork there, use that.

P.P.S.: I know that signature was weird. I'll figure out something better next time. How about _Leader of the Revolution Against Gingerbread Men_? 


End file.
